Books and Stories

Several new works are one the way, flavorful bites of entrees prepared by your literary chef, Bernard Alexander McNealy. Consider them as morality plays with defined issues of right versus wrong. However, there will be encroaching shades of grey -- obscuring the edges -- rendering the approach to an appropriate solution tenuous. All of the tales will be entertaining and, hopefully, provocative.

A Perfect World marks the debut of Perry Richards, a Los Angeles lawyer. He is married to beautiful, devoted and intelligent Felicia. She is a woman to be admired as she balances being a mother, wife, and therapist. The chief problem in this marriage is a woman named Charleston Bradley. She is rich, peerlessly sexy and wants all of Perry. Their stories are chronicled in a series of mysteries reminisncient of Perry Mason. Each installment will follow family and friends of the Richards family as they battle various adversities in novels wherein the word "world," will appear in the title. Next up is "The World In His Hands," followed by "A World Apart," and "Detective, A World of Trouble." Look for these by fall 2004, winter 2004-2005, and summer 2005, respectively.

Murder, mahem, and deceit among the black middle class of Los Angeles is the focus of The Marvin Tanner Mysteries. Marvin Tanner is a former pro football player working as an independent business mediator. He is a charming athletic speciman with a proclivity for beautiful women. Jeanette Rivers is the one woman that truly understands him. She is a psychologist and associate pastor at an influenital black church. There problems seem to be of this world and from the devil himself. The story 'Tanner' kicks its off. Here, blackmail leads to desperation and eventually murder and no one seems innocent of the finger of guilt.

Sharply departing from the bon mots and wsiecracking of mediator turned problem solver is Tales From The Glass Skyline. These darker stories again feature the upward professionals of Los Angeles as their world sharply collides with the denizens of the poorer citizens of North Hell -- as LA is called. In a story called Sreamed Rice, Solitary Women, Miriam Kincade, a legal aid lawyer in the barrio of East Los Angeles enlists the aid of Perry Richards to investigate an attempt on her life. Therein begins a saga of avoidance and pursuit. Miriam's best friend, Linda Gallegos is one step ahead of self destruction and there are some who want them both to perish. There's also the gritty story involving a glamour girl turned cop-turned hard-boiled P.I., Carter Lynn. These are just a start.